Christmas is becoming magical – and that’s coming from a Scrooge. We decorated our tree, and seeing the kids’ eyes every morning when the lights went on made us happy all day. She loved her advent gifts, as did Remy – and she loved Remy’s advent gifts! Her favorite Christmas gifts were books, a broom and plastic food. I can only dream she’ll be as easy to please next year. As an extra treat, she got a little motorized train. She’s under the impression it belongs to her cousin, so I think she’ll flip out when it shows up at our house. Tess is finally old enough to enjoy presents, and really enjoyed getting to spend time with all of her cousins – big and little! She peeked and played and ate and squealed – and had us laughing all the time. She got kind of overloaded with presents, but liked unwrapping. More than anything, I think she loved the lights, color and commotion. When the kids started coming, we all talked about this year – the year when kids would be old enough to really enjoy the holiday and each other. In theory, it appeared Rockwellian. In practice, it overwhelmed all the grown-ups. Twelve kids under four is a lot of little personalities! The whirlwind of shopping, wrapping, dinners, driving, planning, packing etc. left us all eager for a break. So we’re off! The Colorado mountains are calling. We’ll see how the kids like that snow and those trees.